Cooling wort
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Totem
Cooling wort
Hi guys, I was just looking again at the hoegaarden recipe in the kit section and following what it says - just top up with cold water to 22lt after the boil and not cool first. Could you do that with extract brewing too? I think there was a topic about using ice cubes instead of using the wort chillier. Am I right though in thinking that cooling the wort causes proteins and other stuff to fall out of the wort before adding water to top up?
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stevezx7r
That's right, it facilitates the "cold break" where the stuff you don't want in beer - the haze causing proteins etc - fall out of solution and get trapped (in an AG brew anyway) with the hops after the boil ends.
I tried with two large ice blocks and it worked to certain degree although I added them too soon - I should have added them once the hot wort had cooled to around 50C. If you adjust your wort amount at the end of the boil to say 8 litres less than you need then all you need do is freeze two 4 litre containers (sterilised) and them when your ready. BTW, it took my freezer around two days to freeze these two blocks of ice.
Your best bet is to buy/make a copper immersion chiller.
I tried with two large ice blocks and it worked to certain degree although I added them too soon - I should have added them once the hot wort had cooled to around 50C. If you adjust your wort amount at the end of the boil to say 8 litres less than you need then all you need do is freeze two 4 litre containers (sterilised) and them when your ready. BTW, it took my freezer around two days to freeze these two blocks of ice.
Your best bet is to buy/make a copper immersion chiller.
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macleanb
Seconded - get a chiller - you will need to add a HUGE amount of ice to get the required cooling with extract brewing... It will cost you more - its a triple whammy, you're paying to heat up, and to cool down, and its slow (risking infection), and you wont have a brew day, it will be a brew weekend.
With kit like brewing, the amount of boil is very small (3 ltrs in this case) - this is practical to cool with cold water/ice. However when you move to extract brewing, you will be performing much larger , full boils, which have a much larger heat capacity - like 1.6 million calories)
Its £30 well invested if you are thinking of going to extract (or AG).
With kit like brewing, the amount of boil is very small (3 ltrs in this case) - this is practical to cool with cold water/ice. However when you move to extract brewing, you will be performing much larger , full boils, which have a much larger heat capacity - like 1.6 million calories)
Its £30 well invested if you are thinking of going to extract (or AG).